Tag Archives: language

Braschi

Week 11: Yo-Yo Boing and the Art of Spanglish

Reading Yo-Yo Boing! by Giannina Braschi was a unique and thought-provoking experience for me. As someone who is semi-bilingual and interested in linguistics, translation, and multicultural literature, this book provided me with a deeper insight into the complex nature of language and culture.

One of the central themes of the book is bilingualism and the challenges of translation. The characters in the novel often switch between English and Spanish, reflecting the reality of many bilingual individuals who navigate between two or more languages on a daily basis. I really liked Jon’s visual of characters “yo-yo-ing” between tongues and cultures. Everyone I know who is bi- or multilingual experiences language like this; not in distinct, black-and-white realities, but in oscillating sounds and voices.

The text also highlighted the struggle of immigrants to maintain their cultural identity while adapting to a new linguistic and cultural environment. Braschi uses language creatively to capture the unique experiences of bilingualism and the cultural clash that occurs when different languages and cultures come together. This felt very familiar to my own lived experience, growing up in Pennsylvania and watching my family wrangle with English and the midwestern American culture. I felt particularly reminded of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Dominican writer Junot Díaz while reading Braschi’s text; this book also uses a liberal patchwork of Spanglish dialogue and linguistic clashes to portray the experience of Hispanic immigrants in the US.

Moreover, the novel explores the role of translation as a tool for bridging cultural gaps. Translation is a way of preserving cultural identity and heritage, as characters try to translate cultural traditions and beliefs into a new context. Hurdling language barriers with code-switching and bilingual slang becomes an essential means of understanding each other. Linguistically, it felt like a third language was born in the expanse between English and Spanish. I thought this was beautifully executed with Braschi’s focus on a chorus of nameless dialogue; it concentrated all the focus on the poetry of spoken translation in action.

As a bilingual person, I could relate to the characters in the book and their experiences of navigating multiple languages and cultures. The book made me reflect on my own linguistic and cultural background and the challenges that come with maintaining my cultural identity while living in a different linguistic and cultural environment.

I think Yo-Yo Boing! is a powerful reflection on the complexities of language, culture, and identity. It challenges traditional ideas of code-switching and offers a fresh perspective on the immigrant experience. Braschi turns Spanglish into an art in and of itself; something that I was once very ashamed to resort to is made into something quite beautiful and singular here.

Question for discussion: Do you have any words, phrases, or discourses in mind that you feel are untranslatable? Language that can only be understood and appreciated in its original form?

Standard
Mistral

Week 4: Madwomen and the Folklore of Anguish

Beginning Gabriela Mistral’s Madwomen, I was admittedly intimidated. Often I find it difficult to decipher and fully understand poetry or prose. Part of the reason, I think, is because poetry condenses so much information in so few words – it feels like not a single article or punctuation can escape me lest I completely miss the message. Surprisingly, however, I found myself easily falling into Mistral’s poetic rhythm and found it difficult to put the text down. The language was so captivating, it was almost hypnotic; I think this is a fitting reaction given Mistral’s invocation of folkloric imagery.

What I enjoyed most about Madwomen was Mistral’s frequent allusions to Greek mythology. The introduction, written by Randall Couch, hinted to this initially saying, “Greek tragedy depicted prophets without honor in their own countries – a role with which [Mistral] came to identify” (18-19). Mistral speaks to this rejection from her home country, Chile, in the first stanza of her second poem “The Abandoned Woman,” describing Chile as a “sour country” whose love she is going to unlearn. Later in this same poem she describes peeling her “skin like a pomegranate,” which is considered the fruit of the dead in Greek mythology, commonly associated with Persephone, queen of the underworld (35). Being interested in Greek mythology since childhood, other language stood out to me as originating from this epoch: “nor the wind, shaker of sails” (Zeus), “and once more take up the world” (Atlas), “a medusa lifted on the waves” (Medusa) (43; 49; 51).

My favorite Mistral passages came when she assumed the perspective of an all-powerful goddess, like in “The Anxious Woman.” She writes, “How could he not arrive, if the elements / I’m pledged to bring him to me?” invoking the omnipotence and divinity of an immortal god. Interestingly, in this way, Mistral is demonstrating that despite the power and immortality of the gods, they still suffer. I believe this could be allegorical of Mistral’s own life: despite being at the height of her career and influence, she still contended with “madness” and anguish. Another similar instance came in “Electra in the Mist,” in which Mistral writes, “In the ocean mist I wander lost, / I, Electra, fingering my garments,” embracing the identity of the goddess of storm clouds (109).

But above all, my favorite passage of this kind came in the form of “Clytemnestra,” known as the wife of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. In Greek mythology, Agamemnon brutally sacrificed his daughter to please the gods and improve the Greeks’ chances in the Trojan War. In “Clytemnestra,” Mistral captures the maddening agony and torment of a mother without her daughter, sacrificed at the hands of a proud, arrogant man. Being one of the last poems in the collection, reading it, I felt I could almost hear the chorus of howls from this congregation of “mad women,” driven to insanity by grief or injustice. I expect there are hundreds of gems in Madwomen I still need to discover and I hope to return to this text again and again.

Question for discussion: Do you like Greek mythology? Which fable is most vivid for you?

Standard